Author Spotlight: Lu J Whitley

Welcome to another edition of the Indie Author Spotlight! Last calls, if you want to get involved with your own interview, head on over here. I’ll be starting a new series in the near future.

Name
Lu J Whitley

Tell us a brief summary of your book’s plot.
BloodMarked is the story of a small, town college student – Greta Brandt – who’s lived a quiet, sheltered life with her German born mother. The one thorn in her side is the recurring nightmares she’s had since she was very young. Dreams of strange, yellow-eyed creatures attacking her family, killing her father, and leaving her for dead.
When Greta returns home one night after a trying day, she finds that she’s not alone in the house. But what she sees can’t possibly be real. Nightmares don’t come to life. Do they?
Jaromir Ragnarsson knows all too well that nightmares are real. He’s been one for nearly eight centuries. But Greta Brandt is his responsibility, and the creatures that have been stalking her for the last eighteen years won’t get through on his watch… If he can just keep his focus and get Greta out of his head for good.

What was the inspiration for this story?
It may sound crazy, but as a writer, I hear voices in my head all day long. About two years ago, one of those voices became louder than the others. Jaromir Ragnarsson. He’s a foul-mouthed, dictator of a viking prince with a soft side as deep as the snows that cover his homeland. And he decided to tell me his story. So BloodMarked was born.

Do you have any writing habits you would like to tell us about?
I write everything by hand first. Everything. It takes forever, and the story changes at least three times before it ever ends up on a computer screen, but that’s the way it is, I guess.

What is the hardest thing to manage when you start writing?
Time. Elusive time. Some days, I can write 1000 words an hour. Some days, one sentence can take all day. But I always think I have so much time, until a deadline starts to approach. And then all Hell breaks loose.

Name the three books currently topping your To Be Read list?
I’m currently reading Crown of Stones: Magic-Scars by C.L. Schneider, which is AMAZING.
Next on my TBR list is:
1. Cloak of Shadows by CK Dawn
2. Vampire Shift by Tim O’Rourke
3. The Shadow Rises by K.S. Marsden

How important do you think a book’s cover is?
Very. I’d like to say I don’t judge books based on their covers, but I do. A cover can say so much about a book, and if the cover doesn’t look interesting or doesn’t look like the author put any effort into it at all, I’m probably going to assume they didn’t put much effort into the book either.

If you could collaborate with any author, who would you choose?
Alive: David Sedaris. He’s a hoot and a half. I’d just like to sit and have a conversation with him really.
Dead: J.R.R. Tolkein. Because seriously, who wouldn’t?